The present invention generally relates to apparatus and methods for fabricating food items, and particularly to apparatus and methods for fabricating food items including food of a desired embossed shape supported on a support material and to the food items which may be produced by such apparatus and methods.
The sale of snack-type food products is a highly competitive business. In addition to the particular food components, increasingly the novelty and play value of the product are important in the marketability of any particular food item. For example, fruit-based snack products such as FRUIT ROLL-UPS.TM. and FRUIT-BY-THE-FOOT.TM. fruit products have found wide market acceptance.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide novel apparatus and methods for the fabrication of food items, which in the preferred form are in the form of a continuous string of food supported upon a relatively rigid strip of support material in a non-intersecting arrangement. In the most preferred form, the food items include integral zones containing different foods which are not intermixed.
Another object of the invention is to provide apparatus and methods where the food is compressed as strings on the support material without a thin layer of food being present on the support material and between the desired shape of food.